Mackinaw Crossings under temporary occupancy permit

Friday

May 9, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Brady Hebert

The Mackinaw Crossings opened for the summer season May 1 under a temporary occupancy permit from the Cheboygan County Building Safety Department following the collapse of a building in the outdoor mall complex on March 7.The building collapse was caused by a build up of snow on the roof along with flaws in the original construction of the building, said Sarah Grant, property manager for the Mackinaw Crossings during a Mackinaw City Village Council meeting last week.“The snow, of course, affected this building coming down, but through engineers coming in and looking at our structures, the building that fell was not built correctly. There is no lateral bracing in our roof structures,” said Grant.The collapsed building has been torn down, and according to the Cheboygan County Community Development Department, engineers and building inspectors have conducted structural analyses of the buildings in the Mackinaw Crossings complex.The latest engineer reports on buildings near the collapsed building indicated that various reinforcements, which have been installed are acceptable. The engineers also have determined that the remaining units in the complex are currently in the same condition as they were prior to the collapse. Engineering studies of the structures are ongoing.Grant said blueprints for buildings in the Mackinaw Crossings do not match what was built, and there is no bracing in the roofs. She added that engineers have done some preliminary work and will start inspecting all of the roofs in Mackinaw Crossings on June 2.“The roofs that we can get to have the same issues that the building that fell had as well. We have a lot of work to do,” said Grant. “We have a big problem on our hands. Those roofs are not done right. … Some of them are going to be easy for us to put lateral bracing in, some of them aren't. Some of them we will have to rip the roof off to get to them.”Phone calls to O'Boyle and Company of Marquette, believed to be the general contractor who built the Mackinaw Crossings complex in 1997, were not returned.The Mackinaw City Village Council has approved a temporary siting of an antique carousel on the site of the collapsed building for the summer season, and Grant said it is not known at this time if the unit will be rebuilt.